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Kiddy Porn Problems

Online Kid Porn a Tricky Problem

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The recent arrests of The Who's Pete Townshend and Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman) on child pornography charges spotlight complex issues in which the Internet is increasingly a major player.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of us consider child porn utterly disgusting. But as uncomfortable as it may make us, it's wise for us in an Internet world to consider carefully whether everyone who has contact with such materials should be painted with the same broad brush.

Producers and distributors of child pornography, and other child abusers, should be subject to the harshest of penalties. That's an easy call.

The situation is much cloudier when it comes to punishing people who are only in possession of (or have simply viewed) child porn as defined under current law, especially in the case of first-time offenders.

Before the advent of the Internet, only people seriously driven to obtain these disreputable materials were likely to do so. They typically had to meet with shady characters in back alleys or participate in secretive, underground photo-mailing clubs.

The Internet changed everything. It's been a dream come true for the distributors of such garbage and for predators who could target children through chat rooms and similar venues.

This is the type of stories we see too often. I stumbled apon it while searching threw www.undergroundnews.com and of course i had to read it. It is very obvious that child porn is a huge problem but it doesnt seem like enough is being done to stop it.

If you go on usenet and search some of the nntps you will find sick crap like alt.binaries.kiddy.porn and other such disturbing material. I dont think enough people do things to try and stop child porn and it just bothers me. So i googled up a link to help stop child porn and child abuse in general.

I found this link which i think all of us should take the time out of our day and read over

Usually anything involving kiddie porn (a website) I report. It is SICK and degrading. You would have to be an extremely sick individual to do something like that, and sometimes I've been asked to 'hack the kiddie porn' for those that know what I mean. As much as probably a lot would like to, it would be stooping to their level. So, I always report a site I find offensive in that department.

Sharky you are 100% correct IMO. It is up to the courts to decide the severity and penalty of those possessing these images and just because the internet has made them easier to get does not change the fact that it is a crime to possess them.

Yet we commonly see people trying to rationalize those who do seek these images out. I am a strong proponent of 1st ammendment rights but that is not the issue here. Child porn is illegal, the creation, distribution and possession of it is illegal. It would have done Mr. Townshend and Mr. Reubens better to consider how their careers and reputations could be affected before downloading what is one of the few remaining true taboos of our society. Mr. Reubens certainly should have been twice shy having already been once burned.

I agree though report them all, if there are outstanding circumstances let the court determine that. If there aren't then get these people off the streets and away from our children. The only nice thing I can say is that they are one small step better than those who have used the office of the church (any church any religion) to perpetrate the same horrendous crime on our children.

While I realize that thought police are not the answer, and niether is witch hunting, the problems associated with child pornography especially the problems associated with the children that are abused to produce this "form of entertainment" are severe enough to prosecute anyone found to have visited the child pornography sites. The penalties should be more than a stiff slap on the hand. This may drive those sites out of business.

The websites are nothing, they should be the least of everyones concerns. IRC and Yahoo are where people should be looking... I'm willing to bet that 1 in 20 yahoo briefcases contain child pornography. You can talk to someone who seems completely normal and then you click on view profile, and the sh*t that'll pop up is rather disturbing. IRC is no better... in the days when I was a script kiddie/packet monkey, when I had first discovered the internet, my friends and I would log onto dalnet and the #! channels are disgusting.. they cover every topic you could ever imagine, and half of them are trading pics. Go on Yahoo and go to chat, click on Romance -- Adult -- User Rooms.. it's disgustig the stuff that will turn up. And then there's newsgroups.. These are the things that have to be shutdown, and dealt with. It's like an economy.. if you want the economy to die, you dont' shut down one business (or server in this case) you eliminate free trade (Yahoo, IRC, Newgroups), without free trade countries die, and so will the kiddie porn.

ending free trade is not simple nor is it "the answer" to all our problems. with a society of people as big as that of the internet i think we must deal with the good and the bad. if you want to shut down IRC for example becasue of child porn then what aobut the rest of the IRc users. what will they do? will you make it so there is no saring of files at all, how will you govern such a thing? i think reporting anything that you find offenseive is the best thing you could do.

Things are being done and have been for some time, by the nature of the crimes and investigations, they can't always be as "Headlined" as is the illegal trade in MP3 etc ...

In my opinion anyone who pays or purposely views this stuff is as guilty as the supplier/manufacturer and should be dealt with accordingly. Without the demand for this stuff the supply would certainly reduce.

In 1998 the "Wonderland Club" aka "Wonderworld" was busted up - this secretive group traded images/video's of children as young as 9 months being raped. Internationally co-ordinated raids nabbed a large number of these sicko's in a number of countries. The operation resulted in a total of 107 arrests in the UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United States after similtaneous raids were co-ordinated to stop these people getting word out to each other.

http://www.anti-kinderporno.de/wonderworld.htm ..... gives a bit of history for those unfamiliar with the operation (Operation Cathedral) - the start of the page is in German (I think) but if you scroll down a bit the rest is in English. A search on "Wonderland Club" is bound to turn up more.

As I said before, operations like this are going on all the time but due to the nature of the crimes it doesn't play too well if you put your cards on the table first. The first most people will ever hear about these is when the raids happen and the offenders are arrested - then we get to read the "Headlines".

If you stumble across something of this nature, report it - although it may appear nothing is being done immediately - you can be assured that it will be investigated and if found to be authentic - the appropriate action taken. Remember "your" find might only be the tip of the iceberg and protracted investigations across international boundaries take a fair amount of time and planning to gather the evidence.

By reporting it, some child somewhere will be grateful, although they will probably never know it.